. >> president obama in balance making the case for increasing taxes now. dealing with the big package after the new year. house speaker boehner saying that the proposal up on capitol hill from the administration was in his words "ludicrous." and republicans saying that actually they laughed at the initial proposal from the treasury secretary yesterday. let's bring in the panel. bill kristol of "weekly standard." juan williams, columnist with the hill. syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. okay, bill, is this part of the kabuki theater, the dance, choreographed back and forth? or are we really looking at something that is in deep trouble here? >> it looks to me more like the theater. the president understandably is going to put out his optimal scenario first. especially since he is going to try to hammer republicans on the greatest vulnerability, the president will say over and over i propose and the senate democrats passed the tax cut, 98% of all americans to take a lot of, a lot of what the fiscal cliff is. move a lot of the damage to the economy on j